Ibrahim Albluwi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Jordan. In this episode, we talk about his new ACM TOCE paper, "Varying Program Input to Assess Code Reading Skills," and the question of how we can evaluate code readability and comprehension in intro CS.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The importance of code reading skills
• Understanding code: tracing vs. explanation
• Variable Input Tracing: a new approach
• Teaching code reading skills
• The role of AI in code reading
• Debugging and its importance

About the guest

Ibrahim is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman, Jordan. His research interests focus on computer science education. He is primarily interested in improving our understanding of how to effectively teach and assess programming, algorithms, data structures, and problem-solving.

Where to find Ibrahim

Website: https://ialbluwi.github.io/index.html 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibrahim-albluwi-3898b1b/ 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RQxMuuv3_W4C&hl=en 

Papers referenced:

Varying Program Input to Assess Code Reading Skills https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3737884

Other referenced:

Vibe Coding Among CS Students https://medium.com/@dannyprol/vibe-coding-among-cs-students-68a8861df436 

Code Reading Club: https://codereading.club/ 

About the podcast

You can watch the full episode on Youtube. Or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice. Thanks for listening!

Catch Up on Computing Education Things Newsletter: https://computingeducationthings.substack.com/

About this Episode

In today’s episode, I sit down with Naaz Sibia, a CS PhD student from University of Toronto, to explore the role of visualization tools in computing education. Naaz helps us understand the concept of visualization for CS Education, shares how visualizations can be applied to learn different themes of computing concepts, and we explore how she has navigated the challenges that face CS educators and curriculum design.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The importance of visualization in computing education
• Engagement and teaching methods in visualization
• Applications of visualization in algorithms and data
• Cognitive load and attention in learning
• Enhancing online learning with visual tools
• Critical thinking and problem solving through visualization

About the guest

Naaz Sibia is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Toronto (UofT), co-supervised by Professors Carolina Nobre and Michael Liut. Her research focuses on using interactive visualizations to improve introductory programming education, enhancing student belonging and engagement online, and exploring the role of reflective prompts in flipped classrooms.

Where to find Naaz Sibia

Website: https://www.naazsibia.com/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naaz-sibia/ 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=r60zG3UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Papers referenced:

Exploring the Role of Visualization Tools in Enhancing Computing Education: A Systematic Literature Review https://scholar.google.ca/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=r60zG3UAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=r60zG3UAAAAJ:_kc_bZDykSQC 

SQLVis paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9576431 

Tools referenced:

https://algorithm-visualizer.org/ 

https://blog.levelupcoding.com/ 

About the podcast

You can watch the full episode on Youtube. Or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice. Thanks for listening!

Catch Up on Computing Education Things Newsletter: https://computingeducationthings.substack.com/ 

In today’s episode, I sit down with Matthias Hauswirth, Associate Professor at USI (Università della Svizzera italiana), where he leads LuCE, the Lugano Computing Education research lab. Matthias and his team built a great site to learn programming with graphics. It's called PyTamaro, and Matthias is here to tell us about it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

00:00 Introduction to PyTamaro and Graphics in Programming
02:38 Engaging Students Through Graphics and Programming
06:00 The Importance of Problem Decomposition
08:56 Teaching Programming Concepts with PyTamaro
11:46 How to use PyTamaro to teach Python programming
14:42 Exploring the PyTamaro Library and Activities

About the guest

Matthias Hauswirth is an Associate Professor at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland, where he leads LuCE, the Lugano Computing Education research lab at the Software Institute. His research focuses on how people learn to program. His recent work includes ExpressionTutor.org for teaching expression evaluation; PyTamaro for teaching python programming with graphics; and Progmiscon.org, a comprehensive inventory of programming misconceptions.

Where to find Matthias Hauswirth

• Website: https://hauswirth.github.io/ 
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rIy8rOoAAAAJ&hl=en 

References

• PyTamaro: https://pytamaro.si.usi.ch/ 

About the podcast

You can watch the full episode on Youtube. Or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice. Thanks for listening!

Catch Up on Computing Education Things Newsletter: https://computingeducationthings.substack.com/